Monday, September 26, 2011

No- Sew Reupholster Antique Ottoman

Happy Monday!

Today, I wanted to share with you one of the projects I did last night in just 2 hours. I found an antique ottoman about 4 years ago to use in my little girl's room. Recently the ottoman was looking a bit rough, so it was time for a change. As a rule when I purchase anything I make sure, A) I love it, (not like it, love it) B) I will keep it for a long time and C) it can be used in different rooms and can be redone if need be. I love nice things, but I want to keep the cost down, so I shop around for good deals all the time. The total cost of the ottoman with the materials was $30.

Materials you will need are:

Upholstery Fabric (measure your ottoman first and then you can figure out how much fabric you need or if not sure ask at the fabric store.)
Brown Trim
Staple gun
scissor
Sand paper (fine)
A can of Krylon spray paint

This is what the ottoman looked like
As I started to remove the yellow fabric I noticed it was covering up another old fabric which looked messy. I decided it would be best not to take the yellow fabric off and I just laid the new fabric right over it. Normally, I would have taken off the old fabric before putting on the new one.

I used 1 yard of the upholstery fabric and before stapling make sure to stretch and hold down the fabric tight then staple into place. 
As you can see my fabric has a pattern and I made sure the design was in the center of the ottoman. Also make sure the fabric is distributed evenly on all sides.

In the first picture you can see the ottoman is rectangle shape, so I stated stapling the first long side of the ottoman, then the small side next. Once I did this, I gathered the center together and stapled. See picture below.


I gather till I got the look I wanted. 

Here are the old feet of the ottoman.
The wood was dark and I didn't want to keep the feet dark, so I lightly sanded and wiped clean. I love Krylon paint, because it's easy to use and it dries fast. They have great colors as well. Once  I gave the feet two coats of paint I attached them back on to the ottoman once they where dry.

Feet all sanded and used Krylon Carmel Latte color. 

I hot glued the trim around the ottoman and here is the finished product. I love how it came out and the colors.


See how I gathered the center and tucked into place.

The main pattern is in the center of the ottoman. 
What do you think of the no-sew ottoman? I love comments, so drop me a line! Also, my giveaway is still going on for the MY Memories Suite 2 software till this Thursday, 9/29. Click Here to read about the giveaway and sign up.

Thank you for stopping by and have a great week!

Vanessa

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

New Twist on Chicken Pot Pie

Happy Wednesday!

It seems the week is going by so fast! It must be because I am so busy getting ready to do a birthday party, holidays, blog and housework. However, I did one of my favorite meals last night and wanted to share it with you all. I love when the weather gets cooler because it makes me want to cook comfort food. This my new twist on on chicken pot pie. I don't care much for potatoes, so I added one of my favorite vegetable to my favorite chicken pot pie dish - butternut squash. Butternut squash is so yummy and gives so much flavor to any dish you make. I use it in my chicken soup, paste dishes, as a side dish and the list goes on. Not to meantion winter squashes are so good for us. Click here to see article http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=63

Ingredients:
2 chicken breast or left over chicken from the night before
1 medium red or yellow onion
3 chopped up carrots
1 butternut squash - I used half of the squash
1 crown of broccoli or 1 small bag of frozen broccoli florets
1 1/4 cup of whipping cream
4 Tablespoon of unsalted butter
1/2 cup of water
1 tablespoon of flour
1 sheet of pastry puff or you can make your pie curst from scratch
1 egg (this is your egg wash)
Sea Salt
Black pepper
Garlic power
Olive Oil
**All you need is one large pan to cook with**

Directions:
Preheat your oven at 350 degrees.
1) Cut your chicken in cubes.
2) In a large pan on med-high heat add a couple of teaspoon of olive oil and when oil is hot add chicken. Cook through.
3) Set chicken aside , then add one teaspoon of olive oil to the pan and toss in the chopped up onion. Cook for 2 minutes
4) Next add chopped up carrots, broccoli and butternut squash and cook till tender not mushy. When chopping your veggies cut small pieces and not big chunky pieces. The smaller and not so fat veggie will cook quicker in the pan.
5) When the carrots, broccoli and butternut squash are tender, then add chicken
6) Then add salt, black pepper and garlic power to your liking. I don't like to give measurements on season because everyone's taste is different.
7) Then mix everything all together.
8) Next make a hole in the middle of the pan and I add the whipping cream, water, butter and flour and whisk in the center of the pan. Make sure you don't have any lumps of flour.
8A) If you don't like this method just whisk the whipping cream, water, butter and flour in a bowl and add to pan.
8B) When you add your wet ingredients to the mixture you mixture should have a creamy texture.
9) Once you have the wet ingredients in the pan mix well and let it sit on low for about 5 to 8 minutes more. Make sure it doesn't dry out, if it does add more whipping cream and water. Also taste to see if you need to add more salt or pepper.
10) While the mixture is in the pan, take your thaw out puff pastry and rolled it out on a flour board just enough to go over the top of your pie pan.
Note: I only use one curst for this recipe, but you can use two. This is a light version, well sort of. If you don't count the whipping cream. LOL
11) Place mixture in an ungrease pie pan
12) Place your puff pastry over top and cut off excess crust and cut slits on top for venting
13) Lightly beat one egg in a bowl and take your pastry brush and brush over pastry puff
14) Place in the oven at 350 degrees and bake for 35 to 40 minutes and enjoy!

I love how the pot pie came out and it taste great! I was so excited about make this meal last night I forgot to take pictures of every step, but this recipe is super easy and yummy and I am all about one pan or pot cooking too. Good Eating! I love to hear from you so leave me a comment.

Doesn't that crust look yummy?

The mixture is creamy and yummy! Smell great too!

The veggies are cut in small pieces and not big chunky pieces.  
Don't forget about My Memories suite giveaway this week. Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great week!  

Vanessa

Sunday, September 18, 2011

My Memories Review and Giveaway!

I am excited to be able to offer you my first giveaway this week!

I love to create beautiful scrap books to hold my precious memories, but it is costly buying paper, embellishments, scrap books etc. I was given My Memories software to try out and review and I truly have to say I love this digital scrap booking software. Here are some of my favorite things about this software. 
Highlights:
  • Affordable and easy digital scrap booking software to use.
  • Can choose a design template or create your own.
  • You can create books, dvds, cards, calendars, posters, school reports and much more.
  • One touch editing: let's you zoom, crop, remove red eye
  • You can add photo effects, drop shadow, mats and more
  • Over 600 backgrounds, themes, word art and thousands of embellishments
  • Works with Mac and Windows
Examples of some of the pages and albums I created with the My Memories Suite software so far.


Birthday Invitation

Album of my daughter

Our children playing at the beach

Our Anniversary
I am hooked and the options are endless with  mymemories.com. The winner of this giveaway will receive My Memories suite 2 software ($40 value).

Before you enter you must follow my blog and leave a comment letting me know you did. 

Other ways to Enter:
  • Like my Facebook page and leave a comment on my blog letting me know you did. You can click on my Facebook button.
  • Like www.facebook.com/mymemoriessuite on Facebook and leave a comment on my blog letting me know you like them. (Please leave them a comment thanking them for the great giveaway.)  
For extra entries to the contest:
Follow mymemories.blog.com and leave a comment on my blog letting me know you did.
Follow me on Twitter and leave a comment on my blog letting me know you did. Click my Twitter button.
Follow My Memories suite on Twitter and leave a comment on my blog letting me know you did.

You are going to love this next part! As a special for all my followers, readers, friends, family (pass this great value along) My Memories is giving me my very own Share the Memories code that provides EXTRA $10 off your order of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software PLUS a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store. That's a $20 VALUE!. Just follow the directions below.
PROMO CODE: STMMMS41630
http://www.mymemories.com/digital_scrapbooking_software

Instructions:
Here are some instructions on downloading the software with the promo code:
1. Go to http://www.mymemories.com/digital_scrapbooking_software

2. Click on Add to Cart.
3. Enter the Promotional Code field on the shopping cart page 
STMMMS41630


4. Finish the checkout.

5. To download the software, go to    http://www.mymemories.com/my_accounts/downloads and click on the link to download the software. Your product key will also be displayed on that page.

Thank you so much for stopping by and have a great week! I love comments so drop me a line!
Best of luck!

Vanessa









Wednesday, September 14, 2011

DIY Art Board and Update on Child Work Desk

Last week I did a DIY on creating a child's work desk, if you have not seen it click here. This is a great space for my little one to do school work, art and crafts. She loves this space and it's her space which makes it special.

I updated and added embellishment to the lamp shade and created a board to hang her art work. I love this work space, its right next to my desk which makes it fun for the both of us to spend time together doing the things we love to do, crafts.  LOL!

 I had an extra crown molding so I used it to create the art board

Kaylon Red Banner, love this paint

I painted wooden clothes pins and hand painted inspiring words onto the clothes pins. The words I painted are create, inspire, brilliant, different and unique. I also added glitter buttons to the clothes pins.


My little artist creation. These masterpiece are for sale! : )











 Update: I added ribbon to the lamp shade.

This is what her desk look likes today. 

Added bonus: I always used clothes pins to clip on to any cereal bag, chips, etc. I also added magnets to the back of some and placed them on my refrigerator.

What do you think? I have one more thing to add so make sure to stop by to see another update next week. Thank you for stopping by and I love comments, so drop me a line.

Vanessa

Monday, September 12, 2011

Pumpkin Muffins

My favorite season has always been fall, but living in Florida the fall season never comes. We have about three more months of hot weather. I sure miss the fall season so much and I love pumpkin, so I wanted to share with you this yummy recipe for pumpkin muffins. Just the aroma made it seem like fall to me. Yummy!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup of unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice
1 cup of sugar
1 1/4 cup of solid pack pumpkin
1/3 cup of vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
2 large eggs

Topping:
1/2 teaspoon of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
mix together and sprinkle on top of each muffin before baking.

Preheat oven to 350F and place liners in muffin cups.

In a small bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt, set aside.
In a large bowl whisk together pumpkin, vegetable oil, eggs, sugar and vanilla then add flour mixture to the pumpkin. Whisk all the ingredients till combine. Using a ice cream scoop, scoop mixture into the muffin cups. Sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon topping on each muffin, then bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Insert wooden toothpick to make sure it comes out clean. Set aside for 5 minutes and remove from muffin pan and place on cooling rack.







Give these a try and let me know what you think. I love comments so leave a message.
Enjoy!

Vanessa

Friday, September 2, 2011

Wet Umbrella Bag

TGIF! Happy Labor Day!

I live in Florida and we have our fair share of rain. The raining season here is from June till November. It can rain during the day or night. I could drive in the rain for 2 miles and all of sudden sunshine and no rain. Its crazy! This pass Monday, I was leaving the supermarket and it was raining heavily outside. As I was exiting the building (thank God I had my umbrella in my purse) I saw a display for a complimentary wet umbrella bag. I grab one because I dislike (hate) putting my wet umbrella in the car and its just gets my carpet all wet. As got in the car and I was placing my umbrella in the bag it dawned on me I am going to make myself an umbrella bag, because those complimentary wet bags break.

Materials you will need:
Thread
Sewing machine
Scissor
waterproof fabric - this fabric can be pricey, so here is an alternated a picnic table cloth. Super cheat! I used a picnic table cloth for this project.

As for measurements I just simply took my umbrellas measure it against the fabric. For the second wet umbrella bag I used the complimentary wet umbrella bag as my pattern. I made two bags because I have two small umbrellas and one tall umbrella.

Use my umbrella to measure 

Fold the top edge and sew. This pic is bad, sorry.

Face wrong side and pin the sides and sew the side. Sorry again about the pic.

Before sewing the side sew the bottom at an angle and cut off fabric at an angle. Turn right side out and you are done.

Bag #2 You can use this bag or use your umbrella as your guide to measure. 

Pin the side and trace the other side and pin along the other side.

Fold the top opening and sew. Next sew the bottom corners at an angle and cut extra fabric then sew the sides.

Finish product!

My niece lives up north and I am going to send her one so she can leave it in her car. She can use it when it rains or if it snows. I am going to make her a long and a bit wider bag so she could slide in her umbrella or wet shoes or both. The point is to keep the car rugs dry. These bags are so easy to store as well, you can slide them on the side of your seat or you can leave in the glove compartment. 
Tip: I added a snap on the inside of the bag as well and you can add a strap as well.  

What do you think? I hope you give the umbrella bag a try and I would love to hear from you, so don't forget to leave a comment. Thanks so much for stopping by.  Have a safe and happy weekend.

Vanessa